Sightseeing in Salem - Followed by a Rough Night with My Warriors.

June 11, 2014 – Day 15

Providence/Salem/Gloucester/Peabody

2 hours (total)/123 miles

Salem was our first stop today, in what was supposed to be a mixed bag of sightseeing.  Salem was a surprise for me.  I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting, but the cute seaside town with quaint red brick building and bright pretty flowers was a pleasant surprise.  Perhaps I was expecting something more Gothic (although, every other business had the word “witch” in their name).  I’d originally planned to do the Witch Walk, which is an hour and a half walking tour of historic Salem.  Trip Advisor gave it great reviews, but it didn’t start till 3p.m. and we arrived in Salem shortly after noon.  We had places to see, so I settled for the Witch Museum.  That was a mistake, because it was so cheesy that we snuck out of the museum with two college girls half-way through the tour.

 Entering the Witch Museum.

Aud & I , with Salem Harbor in the background.

After a fantastic lunch at the Harborview Hotel, we headed over to the House of Seven Gables, which was the subject of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s (a Salem Native) novel of a similar name.  You may recall that he also wrote The Scarlet Letter, although there was strangely no mention of this during the tour.  The Seven Gables house has a secret staircase that the children just loved (but I found to be a bit creepy).  We also saw the home where Hawthorne was born, but we learned very little about him.  Disappointing.

I intended to take the kids to Marblehead for a walk on the beach, but by the time we were done in Salem it was after 4 and the little streets were congested with traffic.  I was anxious and wanted to get checked into our hotel, before we headed up to Gloucester (where we were going to eat dinner).

After checking in, we did indeed get stuck in north bound traffic, which was not fun, because everyone was tired and hungry.  Once we got to the beach in Gloucester, we merely took pictures, because there wasn’t much there – no cool restaurants on the water.  We headed back to Peabody.

In Gloucester.

Every road trip, there’s a day when I seriously question why I do this and today was that day.  The fighting and the whining and the traffic.  And the occasional excitement that gets dashed when reality doesn't meet our expectations.  I’m also feeling my age on this trip.  The first couple years the kids couldn’t keep up with momma and that was fine by me.  Last year was different, because we were all grieving and no one really knew how to act and honestly – I moved through the trip in a haze.  This year they’re the ones bubbling over with excess energy and I feel like I’m done at the end of each day.  Done.  And they are much more opinionated than in years past and complain a lot.  We’re in the same car all day and the same hotel room at night and my boys keep peeing on the toilet seat and they are gross. Ugh...

My back-up arrives tomorrow and the timing could not be better!